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Portuguese Finance Minister Resigns

MADRID — Portugal’s finance minister, Vítor Gaspar, unexpectedly resigned Monday amid a prolonged recession that citizens have attributed largely to austerity measures that he helped enforce in accordance with the demands of the country’s international creditors.

Mr. Gaspar, an economist who had previously worked at institutions including the European Central Bank, joined the center-right coalition government shortly after Pedro Passos Coelho was elected prime minister in June 2011. He was put in charge of implementing the terms of the €78 billion, or $102 billion, international bailout that Portugal negotiated just before the election with the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the E.C.B.

While the troika of creditors praised Mr. Gaspar’s work to keep Portugal within the terms of the bailout, the finance minister came under increasing criticism at home. He was held responsible for the budget cuts and other austerity measures that have been blamed for keeping Portugal in recession and lifting the unemployment rate to almost 18 percent, compared with 12 percent when Mr. Passos Coelho came to power.

Mr. Gaspar will be replaced as finance minister by the secretary of state for the treasury, Maria Luís Albuquerque. One of her first challenges is likely to be to negotiate with the creditors for another easing of Portugal’s budgetary targets. Amid soaring unemployment and shrinking domestic consumption, Portugal has repeatedly missed its targets, closing 2012 with a budget deficit of 6.4 percent of gross domestic product compared with a goal of 5 percent.

In his letter of resignation, Mr. Gaspar cited the political and budgetary tensions that came to the fore in April, after Portugal’s constitutional court struck down as discriminatory part of the government’s plan to cut benefits for civil servants and pensioners. The ruling required the government to design a new austerity package to try to keep its finances on track, but that in turn helped fuel protests, including another general strike last week.